From http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/540310.html

First Nations making their mark - KAREN BLOTNICKY

IN THE MIDST of Canada’s multicultural mosaic is a largely untapped market of aboriginal consumers. Often overlooked, this market has many characteristics that should lead more businesses to look to the First Nations as viable consumers of a variety of goods and services.

In Canada’s rush to serve our immigrant population, Canadian media were quick to delve into a variety of ethnic markets. Publications of various types, in various languages, began to account for a larger percentage of advertisers’ budgets. In the midst of this flurry only one key medium, APTN, the Aboriginal People’s Television Network, was born to cater to our own indigenous peoples.

Canada’s aboriginal community is diverse. It consists not only of North American Indians, many of whom come from diverse tribes, but also of Metis and Inuit people. Often overlooked as an economically depressed group with little to attract marketers, the aboriginal community has remained in splendid isolation. However, that is beginning to change.

There are many reasons why the aboriginal market deserves serious consideration. For one thing, aboriginals are much younger than the rest of the Canadian population, which has been long overshadowed by an aging trend. The median age for Canadians as a group was 37.3, according to the 2001 census. However, the median age for North American Indians was 24, for the Metis it was 27 and for the Inuit it was 21.

The aboriginal population is not only younger, but also growing at a much faster rate. The aboriginal population of about one million is expected to double over the next decade or so. This is in stark contrast to the general Canadian population, which is declining as well as aging. Canada is long been relying on immigration to maintain population growth to fuel the future of businesses.

Most marketers do not realize that aboriginal people maintain many of their core cultural values while working and living off the reserve. Sixty per cent of aboriginals live off-reserve in major cities and towns across Canada. They consume the same products and services as others in their communities.

Aboriginal people have also worked hard to establish a small-business backbone to support and grow their local economies. One of the most successful business ventures is in the Membertou Mi’kmaq community on Cape Breton Island.

Only a decade ago the town was feeling the pinch of the loss of coal and steel, as was the rest of Cape Breton. Unemployment topped out at 95 per cent. The Membertou First Nation employed only 20 people with an operating budget of $4.5 million annually and had a serious deficit.

In an impressive display of entrepreneurialism and creativity, the community grew its local business base by developing partnerships with other firms to sell goods and services. Today it employs 250 people, the operating budget has skyrocketed and the community enjoys a surplus. The unemployment rate has fallen to 10 per cent.

The new goal of the Membertou community is not only to make a profit and create jobs, but also to become self-reliant, weaning itself from federal transfer payments.

These success stories are not unusual. Metis and Inuit communities are proving to be creative and successful entrepreneurs. With this newfound wealth comes an even greater opportunity to contribute economically, with enhanced opportunities for individuals to earn a living and to enjoy the fruits of their labours.

Add to this the $7 billion that individual bands receive in federal funds and an estimated $15 billion expected in land claims over the next decade, and the aboriginal market begins to look much more attractive for a variety of goods and services. In 2003 the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business launched the PAR program, an acronym for Progressive Aboriginal Relations. PAR allows non-aboriginal entrepreneurs to partner with aboriginal firms to market goods and services.

In return for doing good business with such firms, non-aboriginal firms will be able to display the PAR symbol, which provides the equivalent of a seal of approval. The PAR seal is regarded as a rating scheme that shows all aboriginal consumers that one’s business meets certain criteria that are considered important by aboriginal shoppers. The project also helps to integrate aboriginal and non-aboriginal business relationships in a mutually advantageous way.

Too often Canada’s small businesses are focused on the new and the different, trying to find ways to appeal to the growing diversity of the general population. Sometimes the secret to success is much closer to home. For more information on the PAR program, visit www.aboriginalbiz.com

For a new marketing opportunity for your firm, consider the aboriginal markets in your own community.

( kblotnicky@herald.ca)

Karen Blotnicky is president of TMC The Marketing Clinic and a professor at Mount Saint Vincent University.

Workshop & TELE-LEARNING SESSIONS ON
BUSINESS BASICS!

One of the best ways to actualize your goals is to “visualize accomplishing your goal” and “know that you can do it”.

PARO on Wheels is coming your way through Workshops and Tele-learning! PARO on Wheels is partnering with the Superior North CFDC to bring you our Business Basics workshop through tele-learning across Northwestern Ontario or by attending the workshop at Superior North CFDC in Terrace Bay.

To register for the in-person workshop or the Tele-Learning session, contact PARO Centre for details and access code: 1-800-584-0252.

Date: November 14th, 2006
Time: Noon to 2pm

PARO on Wheels is moving forward, bringing ideas, resources and knowledgeable, caring people to your community with proven successful programming and a “hands on, let’s get going” approach. We can help you find your hidden skills, and act as your Mentor for self-employment, job searches and training. We can also help you find information on social and government help available.

From  http://www.tbsource.com/Localnews/index.asp?cid=88953

PARO gets rural economic funding - Tb News Source - 11/10/2006

The provincial government announced a move Friday to help women in rural Northwestern Ontario improve their economic independence.

Over $230,000 will flow through the PARO Center for Women's Enterprise and Thunder Bay Ventures improving access to resources for the region's female entrepreneurs. PARO will now be able to begin travelling the region, offering on-line and teleconference classes to their clients.

The funding for the investment comes from the Rural Economic Development Program. It's hoped that this new program will encourage new business to begin and existing businesses to prosper.

From the PARO web site at http://www.paro.ca

The word 'paro' is Latin for "I am ready". PARO Centre for Women's Enterprise is a not-for-profit charitable organization - a unique grassroots, community economic development organization with members involved in decision-making at every level. It provides programs and services designed to increase the economic independence and self-sufficiency of women and their families.  PARO headquarters are located in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. The organization was founded in January 1995.

From http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20061110/remembranceday_2006_061111/20061111?hub=TopStories

Ceremonies held across Canada, and online
Sat. Nov. 11 2006 8:59 AM ET - CTV.ca News Staff

Those who can't attend a ceremony and are observing a moment of silence at home or at the office can take advantage of several virtual options online, by:

• Taking a virtual tour of the Canadian Royal Legion's Memorial Chamber and watching the online ceremony video;
• Spending a few minutes reading through an abundance of online material supplied by the Canadian War Museum which has posted a Remembrance Day Toolkit to provide access to the Museum's archives "to promote public understanding of Canada's military history in its personal, national and international dimensions";
• Reading the Canadian War Museum's selection of suggested Remembrance Day activities that include such things as exploring wartime diaries and researching Canadian war artists;
• Watching the Department of National Defence Vignette video; or
• Exploring the Canadian Virtual War Memorial for names of more than 116,000 Canadians who gave their lives for Canada.

Canadians will be gathering at legislatures, cenotaphs, city halls and community centres across Canada Saturday to observe a moment of silence in memory of Canadians who gave their lives protecting our country.

CTV Newsnet will be carrying live coverage of events on Parliament Hill and from Afghanistan throughout the day.

A wreath laying and Ceremony of Remembrance is scheduled for 11 a.m. at the National War Memorial in Ottawa.

Royal Canadian Legion branches across Canada have scheduled events to mark the day, as have local groups and municipalities.

Canadians who haven't already chosen an event can browse the activities listed below:

Veterans Affairs of Canada has posted an extensive list of Remembrance Day events on its website, ranging from ceremonies at the Red Deer Arena in Red Deer Alta., to a parade and dinner that starts at the Pine Beach Park Cenotaph in Dorval, Que.

The City of Toronto has posted a list of locations for city-organized ceremonies at city hall and community centres, along with a list of other ceremonies at such locations as Royal Canadian Legions, Historic Fort York, and the Toronto Zoo.

Entry to the Canadian War Museum at 1 Vimy Place in Ottawa will be free, and the museum has posted a list of scheduled events that begin with a Remembrance Ceremony in the Memorial Hall at 10:45 a.m. Get there early to attend the ceremony, as the doors will be closed for it between 10:30 a.m. and 11:15 a.m.

From http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20061110.RESERVES10/TPStory/?query=aboriginal

Critics fear for future of remote reserves - Call to move Kashechewan community has 'profound' implications, MP says

BILL CURRY - POSTED ON 10/11/06

OTTAWA -- A federal report calling for Kashechewan's natives to move south, calls into question the future of Canada's remote northern reserves, native leaders and opposition MPs say.

Former Ontario Progressive Conservative MPP Alan Pope argued yesterday that Kashechewan's 1,550 residents should be moved to Timmins, Ont., because the opportunities for better education, health care and jobs that come with life near an urban centre would be better than living in isolation with high unemployment.

But he conceded yesterday that his report could have wider implications when it comes to federal policies for natives.

"I acknowledge to you that that's a political debate that might be started out of this report," he said, when asked if his argument could apply to many other communities.

Print Edition - Section Front
  Enlarge Image

 The fact that Mr. Pope was appointed by Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice had some questioning whether the Conservative government is signalling a major shift in federal aboriginal policy.

"The implication of what is being suggested is profound," said NDP MP Charlie Angus, whose riding includes both Timmins and Kashechewan. "What about every other isolated community that's in poverty? Is that what we're going to do?"

Liberal MP Anita Neville expressed similar concerns.

"Do we start moving other communities to Kenora or to Thunder Bay or to Winnipeg or to Brandon because they're not sustainable? It's a complete abdication of the whole issue of collective rights and the aboriginal peoples' connection with the land," she said.

The report, combined with other measures such as the government's opposition to a United Nations Declaration on Indigenous Rights, had some wondering yesterday whether the government is following the controversial advice of veteran Conservative strategist and University of Alberta professor Tom Flanagan.

In numerous policy papers, columns and a 2000 book, First Nations: Second Thoughts, Prof. Flanagan has argued that Ottawa should stop funding aboriginal communities that are solely dependent on federal tax dollars. Mr. Flanagan argues that the current reserve system benefits only political elites, while most in the community suffer. Instead, natives should be encouraged to integrate with the mainstream economy, he wrote.

"Call it assimilation, call it integration, call it adaptation, call it whatever you want: it has to happen," Mr. Flanagan concludes in his book.

Patrick Brazeau, the national chief of the off-reserve native group the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, has called for an end to the reserve system and hopes Mr. Pope's report will further that debate.

"There is an obligation on the federal government to ensure that aboriginal Canadians receive opportunities on an equal basis as mainstream Canadians," he said. "Hopefully, this government will draw a line in the sand because we can't continue this practice of always expecting handouts from the federal government."

Phil Fontaine, the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, takes a far more negative view of the Conservative government's actions to date.

He said the next few years will see millions of dollars in development in Canada's North that could benefit native communities should they have clear land-claim agreements confirming their rights to those northern resources.

Mr. Fontaine suggested the government wants to dilute native land rights so that they do not interfere with private development of those northern resources.

"One could argue that first nations, because of their location, are in the way of development," Mr. Fontaine said. "People have earned a right to be where they are. This is their homeland. Much of what they originally possessed has been lost."

Mr. Fontaine said Mr. Pope's argument could once have been made about Attawapiskat, another James Bay Cree community.

"It was an isolated community and people would ask the question, 'What is it doing there?' Then all of a sudden they discovered diamonds and overnight it becomes a viable community in the eyes of people in the south."

While the local chiefs of the Kashechewan region did not rule out moving to Timmins, they said it would be an "overwhelming" change from their land-based lives.

Grand Chief Stan Louttit said it raises questions as to how their way of life would fit inside a municipal setting, such as hunting rights.

"There's a whole number of questions that come about," he said.

From http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20061109/kashechewan_report_061109/20061109?hub=TopStories

Kashechewan report recommends moving reserve - Nov. 9 2006

A report on the future of the troubled Kashechewan community in northern Ontario recommends relocating the reserve to the Timmins area, 450 kilometres to the south.

Alan Pope, the federal government's special representative on Kashechewan, released his report Thursday flanked by representatives of the native community.

After spending five months working on the report, which included going door to door to canvas opinions and holding public meetings in the isolated reserve on the shore of James Bay, Pope said he believes the move will improve the lives of the residents.

"The benefits of such a relocation are clear," Pope said in a statement. "This will offer the greatest advantage of improved economic and individual opportunities to the members of the Kashechewan First Nation."

The move would provide the residents with access to improved medical services, educational and employment opportunities, clean water and proper housing, Pope said.

The potential cost of moving the community has not yet been estimated.

Under the recommendation the residents would continue to own the land where the reserve sits, and would be able to continue using it for traditional purposes such as hunting and fishing.

The Kashechewan reserve grabbed the nation's attention in October of last year when an E. coli outbreak in the water supply forced the evacuation of hundreds of residents.

The reserve was again in the headlines in June when the federal Conservative government said it wouldn't move the community to higher ground a short distance away.

Pope emphasized his report contains only recommendations, and it will be up to the residents to decide their own future.

"It's not displacing community from their traditional lands because it's their choice," he told the news conference. "The government isn't ordering anything. I'm not ordering anything. It's simply a report."

However, Pope said he believes the recommendation "offers the best long-term sustainable solution for the community," and he said his report was reviewed by residents who made additions to it.

Stan Louttit, grand chief of the Mushkegowuk Council who is responsible for Kashechewan, attended the news conference with Pope. He said he is concerned that an agreement struck with the current government won't be upheld by the next, in the event that the minority Conservative government falls.

However, he has hope for the proposal and said it is crucial that the residents decide their own future.

"They need to be in the driver seat, they need to discuss that report ... and they need to come up with a community driven action plan in terms of how to move ahead," Louttit said.

The report sets down some discouraging details about life in the Kashechewan community, such as the 87 per cent unemployment rate and 50 per cent high school attendance rate.

Louttit said those issues aren't new, but it's important to have them set down in "black and white" by a government appointed official.

Among its 50 recommendations, the report also calls for high-tech upgrades to water and sewage systems in Kashechewan and other communities along James Bay, the creation of a volunteer fire department and a community evacuation plan.

Keewaytinook Okimakanak's Research Institute is working with the KO Public Works department to facilitate the first series of five online workshops regarding economic
& business development.

The workshops will occur every Thursday morning (9:30-10:30AM, EST) starting November 16 and ending on December 14, 2006.  

Everyone interested in the topics being discussed can participate in the actual session via video conference. As well, there is an online discussion forum and video streaming component for those who need to watch the session online. Please visit the website for: online discussions, workshop schedule, feedback form, links, etc.

http://meeting.knet.ca/moodle/course/view.php?id=66

Presenters include NADF award winner for Youth Entrepreneur and Partnership (2005) and recent Business Plan award,  Darcy & Susan's Gas.

Please contact the KORI office at the number below to book your site for the video conference sessions. 

The first workshop topic - Tips for Proposal Writing, will occur on November 16, 2006 9:30-10:30 AM (EST)

KORI Contact: Terry Moreau
Phone: 877.737.5638 X 1266 Email: tmoreau@knet.ca  

Ontario government press release at  http://ogov.newswire.ca/ontario/GPOE/2006/11/06/c8550.html?lmatch=&lang=_e.html

Government Provides Greater Access To Career Opportunities And Training - Employment Ontario Is Ontario's Employment And Training Network - visit www.ontario.ca/employmentontario

    TORONTO, Nov. 6 /CNW/ - The McGuinty government today launched Employment Ontario, its new, integrated gateway to training and employment services in Ontario, announced Chris Bentley, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities.

    "Our government knows that people and employers are looking for opportunities in our expanding economy," Bentley said. "Employers looking for skilled workers and people looking for training and jobs don't always know where to start or how to use the services we have. Employment Ontario provides a single point of access to coordinated training services that help people achieve their goals."

    Employment Ontario provides seamless, coordinated training, apprenticeship and labour market services, bringing together about 470 service providers in almost 900 locations funded by the Ontario government. Employment Ontario services will help over 500,000 Ontarians this year, including 76,750 employers. Today, the McGuinty government is launching:

• A new program name - Employment Ontario, Ontario's employment and training network - to better reflect the integrated nature of the system and what it will deliver
• An easy-to-use new website - www.ontario.ca/employmentontario with updated training and employment system information and access to an improved database of programs and services in communities across the province
• A toll-free hotline - 1-800-387-5656 - with expanded call centre capabilities for related services
• New multilingual web access to program information in 21 languages in addition to English and French

    Currently, the government of Ontario will spend approximately $340 million through its Employment Ontario service delivery partners, representing an increase of $42.4 million over the past two years since 2004-05.

    "Our goal is to provide user friendly access to employment training," Bentley said. "Employment Ontario focuses on meeting local needs so that employers can find the skilled workers they need and people can pursue the training and learning they need to fully participate in our economy."

    The McGuinty government is working to provide opportunities for Ontarians. Other initiatives include:

• Investing $6.2 billion more in postsecondary education and training by 2009-10 - the most significant multi-year investment in Ontario's higher education system in 40 years
• Staying on track to meet our goal of 26,000 new registered apprentices per year by 2007-08
• Investing approximately $100 million annually in Employment Ontario's apprenticeship related activities
• Investing $127 million this year in Employment Ontario's job services to link employers with both youth and adults, including three new centres with a special focus on helping newcomers
• Investing $63 million this year on Employment Ontario's literacy and academic upgrading programming

    "If the federal government lives up to its commitment to fund the Labour Market Partnership Agreement, Ontario can provide services through Employment Ontario equivalent to those available to other Canadians. This would mean an additional $185 million this year, growing to $314 million in 2009-10, to strengthen employment and training opportunities for Ontarians," Bentley said.

    "Employment Ontario makes it easier for businesses to find skilled workers, helps workers obtain academic upgrading and skills training, and gives more options to the unemployed who are looking, simply, for a better future," Bentley added. "Ontario can only meet its potential as a province when all Ontarians are able to reach their full potential."

See the following also on the press release web site ...

• Backgrounder for EMPLOYMENT ONTARIO - Ontario's Employment And Training Network
• Benefits of Employment Ontario
• Programs and services provided by Employment Ontario
• Backgrounder for ONTARIANS SUPPORT EMPLOYMENT ONTARIO

From http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061106.wreserve06/BNStory/National/home

Remote Ojibwa reserve lies in desperate limbo

KAREN HOWLETT - From Monday's Globe and Mail - Nov 6, 2006

PIKANGIKUM, ONT. — Every morning, Dean Owen parks his truck outside the graffiti-covered cinder-block water-treatment plant in Pikangikum and fills a 26-litre blue plastic jug with drinking water. Like most of the 2,300 residents of this remote Ojibwa community in Northwestern Ontario, Mr. Owen, his wife and four children live in a tiny, wood-frame house with no bathtub, no toilet and no furnace. The windows on his house are covered in café curtains. The door to his outhouse is held shut with a large tree log propped up against it.

Canada's colonial legacy has left many aboriginal communities living in abject poverty. But even by these dismal standards, Pikangikum stands out. It doesn't have enough houses for a population that has doubled in the past 20 years. Some of the dilapidated houses with plywood covering their broken windows are individually home to as many as 18 people. The one-storey clapboard school, built in 1986 for 250 students, has 780 students from junior kindergarten to Grade 12.

Makeshift classrooms have been set up in portable trailers as well as in the library and a storage room.

The geographic isolation of many native communities makes it easy for them to fall through the cracks. Pikangikum, 250 kilometres north of Kenora, is accessible only by air or water, except in winter when ice roads are built. But the reserve has its own unique problems that have made matters worse.

The community's elders trace the state of limbo throughout the reserve to 2001, when the federal government stripped the band council of several management powers because it said local leaders were not able to manage the reserve's mounting social problems. Since then, it is as though somebody simply forgot about the place.

Pete Sarsfield, the head of the Northwestern Health Unit in Kenora who blew the whistle on Pikangikum's water crisis, said the reserve ranks right up there with Davis Inlet, the native community in Newfoundland and Labrador whose epidemic of drug abuse and teen suicide was revealed to the world in the early 1990s.

"I've been around the block," he said. "I've been to about 200 First Nations communities. This is one of the worst I've seen."

Dr. Sarsfield said health-care workers have found a higher incidence of gastrointestinal, skin and urinary tract infections on the reserve, compared with other aboriginal communities. In July, several young children suffering from kidney problems in Pikangikum had to be taken far from home for emergency medical care. Brian Peters, the school's janitor, said his seven-year-old son spent two weeks in a hospital in Winnipeg.

Native leaders say Pikangikum is one of three reserves in Ontario with a drinking-water crisis. Attawapiskat, a Cree community on the James Bay coast, recently declared a state of emergency. In Marten Falls, about 700 kilometres northwest of Sudbury, sewage waste has leaked into a river where the community gets its drinking water.

The crises reveal that little has been done to improve the quality of drinking water on reserves since a year ago when more than half the residents of Kashechewan were airlifted out. All four communities are part of the Nishnawbe-Aski Nation. Of the 49 reserves across the North it represents, 19 are under boil-water advisories.

In Pikangikum, the community's elders say the appalling, overcrowded living conditions make it a warehouse for social problems. This year alone, there have been 23 suicides on the 49 Nishnawbe reserves, including six in Pikangikum.

As his truck approaches a curve in the gravel road leading to the Northern Store, Mr. Owen slows and points to the large tree beside Pikangikum Lake where Tracy Quill ended her life. Tracy, a shy, quiet girl who liked to make beaded artwork, attached a rope to a tree branch and hanged herself on a warm day last July. She was 12 years old.

Tragically, Tracy is not alone. Three teenage boys killed themselves within days of each other in January. And in September, two women met a similar fate, including a 33-year-old teaching assistant on the reserve's only school.

Their deaths have left the tight-knit community, where most residents speak the traditional Ojibway language, deeply shaken.
"It just saddens me," said Mr. Owen, a 35-year-old former chief of Pikangikum. "It breaks my heart."

In 2001, it was Pikangikum's dubious status as Canada's suicide capital that led Ottawa to appoint an outside company to manage its financial affairs. The reserve fought the move in court and won. A federal court ruled in 2002 that the government's dealings with the reserve were "patently unreasonable."

But Pikangikum remained under outside management for another three years. And all the infrastructure projects under way at that time came to an abrupt halt, remaining in limbo to this day.

The water plant where Mr. Owen fetches his drinking water was built in 1995, but only 20 of the 387 houses on the reserve are connected to it, leaving the rest without water and sewage services. The large blue pipes that were supposed to connect homes to the water-treatment plant sit discarded in fields around the reserve, stacked in bundles. Many residents get their drinking water from Pikangikum Lake.

The transformer purchased by the reserve to connect the community to the electricity power grid in Red Lake sits idle. The hydro poles that were supposed to form a transmission line to Red Lake, 100 kilometres south, lie rotting on the ground. Pikangikum relies on four diesel generators for its electricity. But this is not adequate and there are frequent blackouts. Firewood is used for heating.

Indian Affairs officials said privately that progress at Pikangikum has been hindered because the reserve has a history of frequent changes in leadership. They said it takes time for a new chief to become familiar with the issues. Mr. Owen, for example, resigned as chief in April after only 14 months.

Native leaders asked Dr. Sarsfield at the health unit to conduct the study of its water and sewage systems. Mr. Owen said this was the community's cry for help.

"Our community is in a major crisis," he said. But instead of getting any help from government officials, all they do is point fingers at each other, he said. "As long as they're doing that, we're suffering."

In the wake of Dr. Sarsfield's report, which was tabled in the Ontario legislature by New Democrat Leader Howard Hampton, the department has agreed to provide $2.1-million in short-term funding. The money will be used to install water storage tanks at many houses or use trucks to deliver water.

"Obviously these are issues that can't be resolved in nine months," said Bill Rodgers, a spokesman for Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice. "My main concern is the more immediate problem."

Mr. Hampton said the Ontario government also has a duty to act because it is responsible for drinking water in the province. But talks between Ottawa and Ontario aimed at resolving the drinking-water problems on reserves have all but stalled after federal-provincial relations hit a new low last week. Mr. Prentice refused to meet with his Ontario counterpart, David Ramsay, citing Premier Dalton McGuinty's "political grandstanding."

Amid the finger-pointing between Ottawa and Ontario, the community's elders worry that the short-term funding will be just a Band-Aid solution and that not much will change. In the meantime, members of the community, renowned for their resiliency, make the best of a bad situation. At the school, shop teacher Pete Charbonneau's students make things the community needs desperately. The Grade 11 boys are building wooden outhouses. The Grade 11 girls are making wooden sleighs to transport water and other supplies.

Mr. Charbonneau, who came to Pikangikum from Sudbury three years ago, sees the problems afflicting the community's youth first-hand. One of his students, a 16-year-old girl, is in a hospital after she tried to kill herself.

"None of them dream," he said.

It is the community's elders who represent the thin line between hope and despair. Their dream is to one day have the community control its vast timber wealth.

For the past decade, the elders have worked to establish a plan to manage the traditional land of the Ojibwa and set the pace and direction of development. Those efforts culminated in July when the native-owned Whitefeather Forest Management Corp. signed a land-use deal with Ontario that will one day see the reserve reap the financial rewards of harvesting the wood on its land. The plan is undergoing an environmental assessment.

Employees of Whitefeather, which operates out of an office in Pikangikum's only hotel, have made maps, meticulously identifying more than 11,000 summer and winter trails on the 1.3-million hectare pristine wilderness site. They have also done an inventory of every tree, a process that took three summers to complete.

"Our community has solely depended on government handouts," said Paddy Peters, a former chief who runs Whitefeather. "This will create prosperity and success for our people."

The upcoming UN resolution adopting the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is creating problems for the federal government who first voted against it at the committee level. In the House of Commons on Friday, the INAC rep once again side stepped a direct question concerning the adoption of the declaration (see the exchange after the AFN press release). Review the declaration from the link at the end of this KNEWS story.

Press Release from ...

• ASSEMBLY OF FIRST NATIONS
• NATIVE WOMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF CANADA
• KAIROS
• RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY
• LIGUE DES DROITS ET LIBERTES

UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Conservative government increasingly isolated in its unprincipled opposition to vital human rights instrument

     OTTAWA, Nov. 2 /CNW Telbec/ - With the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples set to receive final consideration and historic adoption by the UN General Assembly, Aboriginal peoples and human rights organizations in Canada are welcoming a show of support by the three parties representing the majority of Canadian parliamentarians.

     On Tuesday, the House Committee on Aboriginal Affairs adopted a resolution calling on the government to support the immediate adoption of the Declaration. The seven committee members representing the Liberals, Bloc Québécois and NDP supported the resolution, while the three Conservative members opposed.

     This week, the Declaration is being debated at a Committee of the UN General Assembly. If supported by the Third Committee, the Declaration, which has already been adopted by the UN Human Rights Council, will pass to the plenary of the General Assembly for adoption by December of this year.

     The Declaration, which provides minimum standards for the dignity, survival and well-being of the world's Indigenous peoples, has been under discussion within the United Nations for more than two decades.

     In recent years, Canada had played a key role role in the negotiation of the Declaration and has collaborated with Indigenous peoples to draft a number of the provisions that have been critical in building support among other states.

     However, since the election of the Conservative government, Canada has joined with the United States, Australia and New Zealand in denouncing provisions that Canada had previously supported.

     In June 2006, the Commons Aboriginal Affairs Committee adopted a resolution calling on the government to support the Declaration at the first meeting of the new UN Human Rights Council. Canadian representatives to the Council instead led the opposition to the Declaration but were able to convince only one other Council member, Russia, to join Canada in voting against the Declaration.

     The Conservative government has slowly disclosed a long list of articles that it wants rewritten. However, its arguments to date do not stand up to scrutiny. Nor has it been able to convincingly explain why Canada has reversed its previous position in support of the Declaration.

     Indigenous peoples and human rights organizations say that the government should uphold Canada's international reputation, respect the will of Parliament and support the Declaration. However, the Conservative government has rigidly refused to consult Indigenous peoples on this crucial human rights issue and has already announced that Canada will continue to vote against the Declaration.

     The Declaration is urgently needed as a major step towards addressing the widespread human rights violations affecting Indigenous peoples globally.

-30-

/For further information: Media Contacts: Beth Berton-Hunter, Amnesty International Media Officer, (416) 363-9933 ext 32; Bryan Hendry, Assembly of First Nations, A/Director of Communications, (613) 241-6789 ext 229; Adiat Junaid, Communications Coordinator, KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, (416) 463-5312 ext 223; Jennifer Preston, Canadian Friends Service Committee, (416) 920-5213; Linda Kayseas, Native Women's Association of Canada Media Coordinator, (613) 722-3033, ext. 231; Louis Moubarak, Rights & Democracy, (514) 283-6073, ext. 261; Also endorsed by Inuit Circumpolar Conference Canada and Ligue des droits et libertés./

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From http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Pub=hansard&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=39&Ses=1#SOB-1754520

Ms. Jean Crowder (Nanaimo—Cowichan, NDP): 

    Mr. Speaker, the world is paying attention to how poorly the government is treating first nations. This week, Iran, notorious for its human rights abuses, called Canada to task for its treatment of aboriginal peoples.

    It is shameful that the government has decided to abandon 20 years of work and vote against the UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples.

    Will the government commit to supporting the declaration and resolving the situation in Caledonia so that Canada can hold its head up at the United Nations instead of lowering it with shame?

Mr. Rod Bruinooge (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians, CPC): 

   Mr. Speaker, our government will take absolutely no lectures from the government of Iran on the rights of aboriginals in our country.

    We are moving forward for aboriginal Canadians and for families that have not seen matrimonial real property. We are moving forward with a plan that will bring forward human rights where they have not been before.

    We are very proud of the action being taken by the minister.

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For background information and the content of the declaration download a copy from  http://www.tebtebba.org/tebtebba_files/hrc/hrc1/HRCResol.pdf

For the Press Release describing the Tabling of the 2006-2007 Reports on Plans and Priorities and Backgrounder on the Estimates Process, visit http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/media/nr-cp/2006/0926_e.asp

From http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/rpp/0607/inac-ainc/inac-ainc_e.asp

RPP 2006-2007
Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Canadian Polar Commission and Indian Specific Claims Commission